I am a full time father of nine. I seek to raise godly sons and daughters for the glory of God. I love to write and speak. I am currently a web developer.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

2012 Year in Review

2012 has come and gone like a whirlwind. I reviewed my “2011Year in Review” before sitting down to compose this one. One thing I noticed is
that 2012 saw an all time low in the number of blog posts I wrote since
beginning this blog in 2006. This post marks only the fourth post done all
year. I attribute part of that to an increased use of Facebook. So that short
comments are generally offered there. But I will admit that a big part of this
is simply the busyness of life. I have an idea to begin going through my “Charges
for a Southerland Son” and blogging each section. It’s not too early to start
revising it for Justin’s 13th birthday in just under two years. Every
year I see Doug Phillips admonishment on “How to End the Year X and Begin Y”
(where X is the current year and Y is the year that will be here in a few
days). Doug has a grand vision with a lot of good ideas for chronically what
the Lord has done over the past year. This blog entry is my feeble attempt to
do something, even if I don’t take every suggestion Doug has made.

I’ll begin this year with what is happening on the job
front. I ended 2011 excited about doing IVR contracting. If you review that
post you’ll see that I had left TransCore and was working from home coding IVR
systems. Well, unfortunately the six month contract I had came to an abrupt end
during the first week of January. Though the contracting company was
apologetic, a new CFO at the end client was hired and shook things up after the
end of the year. Several programming jobs were offshored to India. So that left
me looking for work for about a month. In February I hired on, still as a contractor,
with Chesapeake Energy. I started out doing some C#, ASP .NET work with
Silverlight and WPF. After knocking out several bugs over the course of the
next three months, Chesapeake told me that was all the programming they had for
me at the time, but that they had a real need for help in Reporting Services. I
have had a lot of experience doing that at TransCore and other positions before
that. Long story short, I began doing reporting for them in May, and my
contract has been extended a few times since then. Currently I’m good through
the end of January 2013. We’ll see what God has planned for me then, whether a
contract extension with Chesapeake again, hiring on full time with them, or
moving on to other opportunities. Contracting certainly causes me to look to
God more frequently, and to place my trust in Him that He will provide. It can
be a little unsettling to not know what the future holds more than a month or
two in advance. But in reality, that’s true for all of us. None of us are even
promised another day of life. God has always provided my needs. I have had a
desire for quite some time to work for myself. I’m working toward that end with
AnswerSoft, the company I founded in 2010. Though I began it as a reseller for
IVR services through IfByPhone, I have shifted the concentration during 2012 to
mobile app development. AnswerSoft still offers discounted rates on IfByPhone,
and I still support customers who sign up through AnswerSoft. However, app
development is something whereby I have a little more control over the decision
making process. I am currently working on an iPhone app for a local non-profit
ministry. My plans are to port the app over to an Android implementation when
done and support both operating systems. If the Lord wills it I could perhaps
start doing app programming full time. But for now I need to work another day
job in order to support the family.

Much has been going on with the children over this past
year. Here’s a quick update on them.

Brittney is still working to get her leather working
business going. She made me a great pair of leather flip flops. Her goal right now
is to try and earn enough money to take a class from Lisa Sorrell, a world
famous bootmaker that has a shop right here in Guthrie. She is also stepping in
to help teach the other children handwriting during their homeschooling. That’s
a big help as handwriting is really a one on one type of activity. Brittney’s
help on this really takes a load off of Sheri.

Michael has continued to work hard building airplane
hangers. He saved his money and bought himself a Dodge pickup this year. He
also finished up his drivers ed and got his regular license. So now he’s
mobile! He is adding to his arsenal of tools that he can use on the job site.
We got him a DeWalt cordless drill. He also received other tools as gifts this
year. It’s good to see him invest his money in things that he can use to earn
more. Even the truck will help him expand his territory past our little two
street neighborhood. Michael is also joining Justin and I in a study of Joel
Beeke’s A Puritan Theology. I’ll talk more about that in Justin’s section
below.

Brianna has really made great strides in her pottery this
year. She made me a coffee mug. She’s made several bowls and other dishes.
Sheri’s cousin, Brandon Drew is a chef. She showed him some of her work last
week in Texas. He was very impressed and thinks that many in the circles he is
in would love to purchase Brianna’s work. If it makes financial sense Brianna
may consider that. She still enjoys photography, though she has yet to monetize
it. We tried to set her up with an istockphoto account this year, but ran into
a snag when they wanted a photo ID. Brianna is scheduled to start Driver’s Ed
in 2013. So maybe her learner’s permit will serve as the photo ID for
istockphoto and she can start pulling in some income from that endeavor.

Justin is chomping at the bit trying to figure out how to
make money. There’s one thing for sure in our household, the entrepreneurial spirit
is alive and well. But how is an eleven year old boy going to make some cash?
He’s had a few ideas, but not too many have panned out yet. Michael still does
most of the yard work for the neighborhood. Maybe Justin can help out in that
area this Spring and Summer. I’ve tried to drop the bug in Justin’s ear that
computer programming doesn’t discriminate against age and he could do really
well if he learned to program early. So far he’s shown a little interest. We’ll
see if he pursues it. As I mentioned earlier, Justin, Michael, and I began a
study of Joel Beeke’s new book, A Puritan Theology. Our goal is to cover a
chapter each week. It will take us a little over a year to accomplish it. It
looks to be very good, covering what the Puritans had to say about various
theological topics. It’s like a Systematic Theology comprised of many different
outstanding authors woven together though the pen of Joel Beeke.

Paton began playing the violin this year. He was inspired by
our friends, the Chatham family. Their three oldest girls play beautifully. It
just so happens that though they live in Blanchard, their violin teacher lives
right here in Guthrie. So Paton decided he wanted to learn. It seems like it
has come very naturally for him. Paton’s teacher says that he is doing great.
He played in his first recital a few weeks ago. He did a great job, and even
won a medal for the number of minutes he spent practicing. Also, this year Paton was baptized at GracePointe Baptist Church!

Sarah is growing up to be quite a big helper with Melody.
She is so excited to have a little sister and she does a great job playing with
her. Sarah has continued to improve in her reading. Earlier this year Sarah began to experience very real conviction over sin. She became very concerned that she was a sinner. We explained to her that she is right, she has sinned and that she needs to call upon Christ for the salvation of her soul. She prayed on her own and cried out for the Lord to save her. We are rejoicing in the salvation of yet another one of our children.

Samuel is just about done with the book that Sarah finished
last year, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He’s doing extremely
well. There are parts of the book where I’m supposed to tell him to “sound out the
words.” Meanwhile he’s already figured it out in his mind and reads it “the
fast way” before I’m able to tell him to sound it out. He doesn’t know it yet,
but I’ve already got his Geneva Bible sitting on the shelf with his name on it
waiting for him to finish the book. We did Lesson 90 last night. He’ll most
likely finish up in January.

Melody learned to walk early. She walked at 10 months old,
the youngest of any of the girls, and tied with Michael, who was our fastest “learn
to walk” child prior to Melody. That means she’s been getting into everything.
We bought new cabinet locks. She’s very inquisitive and smart. She also has
quite the personality (and temper!). She is a blessing, and I thank God for
trusting her into our care.

Things continue to go well at GracePointe Baptist Church.
The Lord has added several new families and formed new friendships in our
lives. I’m thankful for God’s blessings throughout 2012 and look forward to
what he is going to do in 2013.